


And All Your Tears Will Dry

by wedaredtoclaimthesky



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Bill Weasley is concerned about his friends, Book 5: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Cuddling & Snuggling, Fluff, Gen, Literal Sleeping Together, Minor Sirius Black/Remus Lupin, Nightmares, Number Twelve Grimmauld Place, POV Outsider, Sirius Black & Remus Lupin Friendship, Sirius Black Needs a Hug, but if you don't support wolfstar it can be read as gen, but they sort it out themselves, it's there if you squint, like tooth-rotting fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:53:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28211187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wedaredtoclaimthesky/pseuds/wedaredtoclaimthesky
Summary: Bill Weasley can't sleep, and he's not the only one. He gets concerned about Grimmauld Place's resident ex-convict, but luckily Remus is there.
Relationships: Remus Lupin & Bill Weasley, Sirius Black & Remus Lupin
Comments: 1
Kudos: 21





	And All Your Tears Will Dry

**Author's Note:**

> Credit goes to Rhythm of Love by Plain White T's for the title. I was in the mood for some tooth-rotting fluff about Sirius and Remus living together in Grimmauld Place, and thus this fic was born. Also, I maintain a head-canon that the last two Marauders would behave very differently around each other than they do around anyone else, because they've literally grown up together and can read each other in a way that no one else can.
> 
> I do not support J. K. Rowling's disgusting transphobic views. Everyone should have the right to be acknowledged as the person they want to be without being forced into society's boxes.

Bill Weasley jerked awake, gasping, from a horrific nightmare which featured Death Eaters breaking into the Burrow and slaughtering his family. Instead of being a comfort, this made him panic further when he failed to recognise the dingy room with peeling silver wallpaper that he was sleeping in. Taking deep breaths, his gaze fell on a truly depressing picture of an abandoned stormy beach hanging on the wall as he remembered. This was his room in Number 12, Grimmauld Place, and his family were all perfectly safe inside the gloomy house and its Fideleus. Still, he doubted he would be able to get back to sleep any time soon.

Maybe a hot drink would help. Groaning, he climbed out of bed and tiptoed quietly down the stairs, taking care not to wake any of the snoring portraits for fear that they in turn would wake up Sirius’ horrific mother. If that was really what the woman had been like in life, god help Sirius for having to deal with her for years.

He was sitting in the kitchen, nursing a warm mug of hot chocolate, when he heard the clattering of the door unlocking itself and opening. He tensed, on edge, but a minute later Lupin wandered into the kitchen, looking even more exhausted than usual. Must have been his turn on guard duty at the Ministry.

He started when he saw Bill sitting there. “Sorry,” he yawned. “Thought you were Sirius. He’s usually up at this time of night.” Lupin then winced, as if that was something he hadn’t meant to reveal, although it wasn’t much of a shock to Bill. Someone imprisoned in Azkaban for twelve years was bound to have nightmares.

“Hot chocolate?” he offered, but Lupin shook his head.

“Too tired. I’d probably just end up spilling it all over myself.”

They sat in companionable silence for a few moments as Bill finished off his mug. He tidied up the kitchen after himself as a force of habit, then flashed a smile at Lupin. “Another day, another mission to help the world, huh?”

Lupin returned it, weariness lurking in his eyes, and raised his eyebrows sardonically. “That’s one way of putting it.”

They exited the kitchen together, with Bill heading for the stairs. Lupin, however, paused in the entrance to the drawing room. “Ahh, there he is.”

Doubling back, Bill noticed a shape sprawled across the ugly couch. Features drawn, Sirius shifted restlessly in what was probably the grips of a nightmare rather than an attempt to get comfortable. He looked agonized.

Lupin sighed, a sound that contained fondness and intense worry all wrapped up in one. “I’d better get him up to his room, or he’ll be an absolute terror in the morning. ‘Night, Bill."

“‘Night, Lupin,” Bill responded, and made as if he was heading back up the stairs. But something in him made him stop, and lurk down the hall just out of sight of the door but within earshot. Concern, or maybe just plain curiosity.

He heard Lupin approach Sirius, and then presumably shake him awake. “Come on Padfoot, up you get. This couch can’t be comfortable to sleep on.”

Sirius sucked in a harsh breath as he woke, and then let it out as a relieved sigh. “Slept on worse,” he mumbled, and then, “Moons. Glad you’re back.”

Lupin hummed. “If you’re going to insist on waiting up for me to come home every night I have guard duty, you can at least do it in your bed where you might have a chance at getting some proper rest.”

Sirius shifted, sliding over the couch fabric, and Bill imagined him sitting up. “Tried,” he rasped. “Just trapped me in painful memories, tonight. Can you…?” He trailed off, and Bill strained his ears. Sirius was never hesitant.

“Of course,” Lupin replied gently and instantly. There was a soft fwump, and more rustling as Lupin presumably sat down on the couch next to Sirius.

There was a couple seconds of silence, and then… “You git, stop hogging all the room,” Lupin grumbled.

“I am not,” Sirius whined back. “Merlin, you’re cold. Moony, there is such a thing as warming charms you know.”

“Mad-Eye hates it when we do any magic while on guard,” Lupin pointed out. “The last thing I wanted was to get reamed out by him again.”

“Fine. I guess I can provide an acceptable solution to both our complaints,” Sirius muttered, and there was more rustling.

“I suppose that does work,” Lupin said dryly, and then softly “Goodnight, Pads.”

Bill snuck his way up the staircase to his bedroom, feeling guilty for eavesdropping, but the knot of worry that had built up in his gut when Lupin let slip about how badly Sirius had been sleeping was unraveling. He slept soundly through the rest of the night, undisturbed until his alarm for work the next morning woke him up.

He stopped in the entrance to the drawing room before he went to fix himself breakfast, drinking in the sight that greeted him. Lupin was sleeping on the sofa, having tipped over sometime during the night so his upper body was resting on a great black dog. The dog’s head was on top of his legs, and Lupin’s hands were both buried in the thick fur as they clutched at the dog’s sides. Both parties looked utterly relaxed, deeply pulled under by sleep, and Bill smiled fondly.

They would be all right, all of them.


End file.
